Democrat becomes first state lawmaker to speak while pregnant about fight to get abortion post-Roe

Eva Burch, a Democrat, gave 10-minute speech on floor of state senate on Monday about state’s ‘coercive’ maze of restrictions

When Eva Burch learned that her pregnancy was not progressing and decided to have an abortion, Burch and her husband quickly made another decision: Burch, who is a Democratic state senator in Arizona, was going to speak up about it – from the floor of the state senate.

On Monday, as her voice shook and a group of women surrounded her, Burch gave a 10-minute-long speech about her decision and the struggle to navigate Arizona’s “coercive” maze of abortion restrictions. With her speech, Burch joined the ranks of women who have spoken out since the fall of Roe v Wade about their battles to get abortions even for nonviable pregnancies.

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Texas woman denied abortion decries ‘cruelty’ of Trump 15-week ban proposal

Amanda Zurawski, who nearly died waiting for procedure, says Trump will inflict ‘chaos’ in remarks released by Biden camp

After Donald Trump voiced support for a 15-week national abortion ban, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign released an angry response from a Texas woman who nearly died due to that state’s anti-abortion measures, enduring a “nightmare” she said Trump created.

“My family has been forever altered by the nightmare that Donald Trump created by overturning Roe,” Amanda Zurawski said.

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Senior UN officer on Gaza hunger strike claims assault by guards at New York HQ

Bruno Donat, head of UN Mine Action Service in Geneva who is fasting over child victims of war, in ‘intense pain’ after incident

A senior UN official who went on hunger strike in support of child victims of the Israel-Hamas conflict has said he was assaulted by UN security guards at the organisation’s New York headquarters.

Bruno Donat, head of the UN Mine Action Service in Geneva, alleged the guards pushed him back on to the pavement outside the headquarters on Monday so forcibly that he fell, striking the back of his head. Donat did not break any bones and has since been discharged from hospital, but says he is still in intense pain.

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‘I need you back’: Biden visits western states in effort to firm up Latino vote

The president headed to Nevada, Arizona and Texas to appeal to voters, saying that Donald Trump ‘despises Latinos’

Joe Biden is on a three-day western US election campaign swing through Nevada, Arizona and Texas with a focus on personally appealing to Latino voters, saying they are the reason he defeated Donald Trump in 2020 and urging them to help him do it again in November.

“I need you back,” he told several dozen supporters packed into a local Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona. And in an interview with the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision he blasted Trump as someone whose hardline policies and biased rhetoric are hostile to Hispanic voters.

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US and UK doctors in Washington to warn of IDF’s ‘appalling atrocities’ in Gaza

Doctors who have returned from volunteering at besieged hospitals to tell officials aid is meaningless without a ceasefire

A delegation of American and British doctors is in Washington DC to tell the Biden administration the Israeli military is systematically destroying Gaza’s health infrastructure in order to drive Palestinians out of their homes.

The doctors, who have recently returned from volunteering at Gaza’s besieged hospitals, are expected to meet White House officials and senior members of Congress this week to warn that pledges of increased aid to Palestinians under bombardment are largely meaningless without an immediate ceasefire to allow safe distribution of food and the revival of healthcare services.

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Texas immigration law: appeals court freezes order allowing prosecution of migrants

Move comes hours after supreme court allowed strict law known as SB4 to take effect, giving state police powers to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally

A federal appeals court has issued an order that prevents Texas from arresting migrants suspected of entering the US illegally, hours after the supreme court allowed the strict new immigration law to take effect.

The decision by the 5th US circuit court of appeals comes weeks after a panel on the same court cleared the way for Texas to enforce the law, known as SB4, by putting a pause on a lower judge’s injunction.

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US primary elections: Biden and Trump notch wins with surprises in store down ballot

Nikki Haley gains votes despite dropping out of Republican race as Trump-backed candidate wins Ohio Republican Senate primary

Donald Trump and Joe Biden swept up more delegates in Tuesday’s primary elections as they set their sights on a rematch in November.

Trump and Biden picked up wins in Arizona, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio. Trump also won the Republican primary in Florida, where the Democrats are not holding a primary.

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Biden administration failures drove the fall of Kabul, say top former US generals

Retired generals Mark Milley and Frank McKenzie, who oversaw evacuation of Afghanistan, said it was poorly planned

The top two US generals who oversaw the evacuation of Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban in August 2021 blamed the Biden administration for the chaotic departure, telling lawmakers on Tuesday that it inadequately planned for the evacuation and did not order it in time.

The rare testimony by the two retired generals publicly exposed for the first time the strain and differences the military leaders had with the Biden administration in the final days of the war. Two of those key differences included that the military had advised that the US keep at least 2,500 service members in Afghanistan to maintain stability and a concern that the state department was not moving fast enough to get an evacuation started.

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Mike Lynch trial: defense points to difference in accounting standards

Lawyers for UK tech tycoon facing 25 years in jail suggest US workers did not understand UK accounting principles

Lawyers for Mike Lynch tried to highlight differences between UK and US accounting standards as they defended the British businessman against allegations he orchestrated a “massive” years-long fraud.

Lynch, who founded and led Autonomy, a UK software firm, is fighting to avoid prison after federal prosecutors in the US charged him with 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy. His criminal trial started in San Francisco on Monday.

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Jonathan Majors sued by former girlfriend for assault and defamation

Grace Jabbari lawsuit also accuses Marvel actor of intentional infliction of emotional distress, battery and malicious prosecution

Jonathan Majors’s former girlfriend has filed a lawsuit accusing the Creed III and Marvel actor of battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution and defamation.

Majors, 34, in December was found guilty of misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment in connection to a March 2023 altercation with his then girlfriend, the actor and dancer Grace Jabbari. Sentencing for the criminal case is set for 8 April.

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US election 2024 primaries: follow live results

Primaries are being held in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – get up to speed with all the live results as they happen

Five states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – are holding their presidential nominating contests on Tuesday, with Florida holding only a Republican primary. Donald Trump and Joe Biden expect to sail to victory in their respective parties, growing their delegate counts in a march toward this summer’s conventions, where they will officially secure their parties’ nomination.

Here are the live results from the five presidential primaries.

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Jared Kushner says Gaza’s ‘waterfront property could be very valuable’

Donald Trump’s son-in-law also says Israel should bulldoze an area of the Negev desert and move Palestinians there

Jared Kushner has praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property” and suggested Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the strip.

The former property dealer, married to Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, made the comments in an interview at Harvard University on 8 March.

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US election 2024 primaries: intrigue in down-ballot races as Trump-Biden rematch set

Ohio Republicans choose their nominee in key Senate race while California seeks to replace former speaker Kevin McCarthy

With a rematch set between Joe Biden and Donald Trump after both candidates crossed the delegate threshold needed to clinch their parties’ presidential nominations, suspense around the next wave of Tuesday primaries shifts to a handful of key down-ballot races.

Five states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio – will hold their presidential nominating contests on Tuesday. Trump and Biden are expected to sail to victory, growing their delegate counts in a march toward this summer’s conventions, where they will officially secure their parties’ nomination.

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Trump ally Peter Navarro to begin prison term after contempt conviction

Navarro, convicted for refusing to cooperate with House January 6 committee, to report to Miami facility with zoo next door

Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Donald Trump, was on Tuesday set to become the first former White House official ever jailed for contempt of Congress.

Sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to cooperate with the House January 6 committee, the 74-year-old economist appealed all the way to the US supreme court, claiming he could not testify as his work with Trump on attempts to overturn the 2020 election was covered by executive privilege.

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Israeli delegation to visit Washington to discuss planned offensive on Rafah

US says attack would be ‘mistake’ as Biden and Netanyahu talk by phone for first time in over a month

Israel will send a team of officials to Washington to discuss its planned offensive on Rafah, the White House has said, as the Biden administration insists that an attack would be a “mistake” and seeks to persuade Israel to allow in more aid in the face of an imminent famine in Gaza.

The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, announced the Israeli visit after a phone call on Monday between Joe Biden and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, focusing on the planned Rafah assault that Netanyahu has vowed to launch.

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California: two men plead guilty to killing wild burros in Mojave desert

John Feikema and Christopher Arnet, who prosecutors say used high-powered rifles to kill three wild burros, face prison sentences

Two men who used high-powered rifles to kill three wild burros in southern California’s Mojave desert more than two years ago pleaded guilty on Monday to federal charges related to the shootings, prosecutors said.

The men wore tactical gear including night vision goggles as they targeted the burros in a remote area north-east of Barstow on 6 November 2021, the US attorney’s office said in a statement.

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Peter Navarro: US supreme court denies Trump ally’s bid to avoid prison

Justices find ‘no basis to disagree’ with lower court’s ruling after Navarro, former Trump trade adviser, convicted of contempt

The US supreme court on Monday denied a request by Donald Trump’s former aide Peter Navarro to avoid prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction for defying a subpoena from a panel that investigated the 2021 Capitol attack.

Navarro, who served as trade adviser during Trump’s presidency, is set to become the first senior member of his administration to be imprisoned for actions related to the attempt to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.

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Teenage twin sisters stabbed, one fatally, at New York deli

Sanyia Spain, 19, said that attacker made advances towards her and her sister Samyia and violently retaliated when they declined

Early Sunday morning in New York’s Park Slope neighborhood, 19-year-old twins Samyia and Sanyia Spain were stabbed by an unknown assailant following an altercation. The sisters were taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist hospital, where Samyia died and Sanyia was released after being treated for her injuries.

Sanyia said in an interview with the New York Daily News that the attacker made advances towards both girls, and violently retaliated when they declined. The teens were with a group of friends and relatives inside a bodega moments before the stabbings occurred.

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Trump unable to make $454m bond in civil fraud case, say his lawyers – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. For more on Trump’s bond efforts, you can read our full report:

Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked the appeals court to delay posting the bond to cover the $454m fraud judgment against him until his appeal of the case is over.

The former president’s lawyers filed notices of appeal late last month challenging Judge Arthur Engoron’s 16 February verdict that he lied about his wealth as he grew the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency.

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Nearly 130,000 children exposed to lead-tainted drinking water in Chicago

Study says the 19% of kids using unfiltered tap water have about twice as much lead in their blood as they would otherwise

About 129,000 Chicago children under the age of six are exposed to poisonous lead in their household drinking water because of lead pipes, according to a study published on Monday.

The study used artificial intelligence to analyse 38,000 home water tests conducted for the city of Chicago, along with neighborhood demographics, state blood samples and numerous other factors.

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